The increased population of Kentucky has not been as great in the last ten years as we might reasonably have expected when we consider the vast amount of land within her bounds and the great extent of her mineral wealth. Whilst her increase has been but a little more than fourteen per cent., Missouri has increased forty-two per cent. and Illinois forty-seven per cent., and the new States and Territories in still a much larger proportion.

The greatest increase of the population of Kentucky has been in the cities. The counties which exhibit the greatest ratio of increase are Ballard, Butler, Campbell, Daviess, Estill, Grant, Grayson, Hancock, Henderson, Hickman, Jefferson, Kenton, Letcher, McCracken, Madison, Marshall, Ohio, Pendleton, and Pike.

Jefferson County increased 58,325 in the last twenty years, whilst the increase of the city of Louisville in the same time was 56,564. While the increase of Fayette County in twenty years was only 177, the city of Lexington increased from 7,920 to 14,856. In the same length of time, Clarke County has lost 801 in population, Harrison 187, Jessamine 1,611, Mason 217, Mercer 922, Scott 2,439, Owen 3,865, Shelby 1,362, and Woodford 4,183. Anderson, Barren, Bath, Boone, Bracken, Caldwell, Fleming, Gallatin, Henry, Montgomery, Morgan, Nicholas, Spencer, Trimble, and Washington have lost in population, and all the other counties except those above specified have increased at a low rate.

Kentucky is naturally rich in the fertility of her lands and ́in the abundance of her minerals, but fails to attract population in many parts in consequence of a lack of the means of communication which rivers and railroads are sure to afford. Upon an examination of the map of Kentucky, it may be seen, that, where manufactures and improvements exist to great extent, the population has increased; otherwise, the population has decreased.

CHAPTER IX.

Historical Sketches of the Leading Denominations of Christians in the State of Kentucky, including the Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Methodist, Cumberland Presbyterian, Christian, &c., with Brief Biographical Notices of the most Distinguished among the Pioneers.

ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

Doctor Hart and William Coomes are mentioned as the first Catholic emigrants to Kentucky. They emigrated from Maryland in 1775, and settled at Harrodsburg Station. Doctor Hart engaged in the practice of medicine, and the wife of Mr. Coomes opened a school for children; so that the first practicing physician and the first school-teacher in Kentucky, of which we have any account, were Roman Catholics.

Hart and Coomes, after remaining at Harrodsburg a few years, removed with their families to Bardstown. Previous to their removal they were as actively engaged as any others at the station in repelling Indian invasions; and Mr. Coomes, especially, in the memorable siege by the Indians of 1776–77, acted a conspicuous part.

In 1785 a large colony of Catholics emigrated from Maryland, and settled chiefly on Pottinger's Creek, some twelve or fifteen miles from Bardstown. With this colony were the Haydens and Lancasters. In the spring of 1786 another colony from Maryland, led by James Rapier, settled in the same neighborhood. In 1787 Thomas Hill and Philip Miles brought out another band, followed in 1788 by Robert Abell and his friends; and in 1790-91 Benedict Spalding and Leonard Hamilton came out with their families and connexions, and settled on the Rolling Fork, in what is now Marion County.

As early as 1787 there were some fifty Catholic families in

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Kentucky; but there was no clergyman among them. About this time application was made to the very Reverend John Carroll, of Baltimore, the ecclesiastical superior of all the Catholics in the United States, who sent them as their first pastor the Rev. Mr. Whelan, an Irish priest. He administered to their spiritual wants until the spring of 1790, when he returned to Maryland.

Three years elapsed before another pastor came. In 1793 Bishop Carroll sent out the Rev. Stephen Theodore Baden. He is represented as a very learned, zealous, and most excellent man. He labored with unremitting zeal among the Catholics of Kentucky for nearly forty years, and until he wore himself down by his extraordinary exertions in his errand of mercy. He estimated the number of Catholic families in Kentucky at the time of his arrival at about three hundred, but there was no church in the whole State. From that period the Catholic population increased rapidly, many churches erected, and schools established.

In 1797 another zealous Catholic missionary arrived in the State, the Rev. M. Fournier, a native of France; and, two years later, the Rev. M. Salmon, also a Frenchman. Their labors were of short duration. Mr. Salmon was killed by a fall from his horse, near Bardstown, on the 9th of November, 1799, and Mr. Fournier died soon after, on the Rolling Fork, from the rupture of a blood-vessel. The same year, to supply their places, Bishop Carroll sent out the Rev. Mr. Thayer, a native of New England, and previously a minister in Boston of the Congregational Church, who, upon joining the Catholies, was promoted to the ministry in that church also. He remained in the State from 1799 to 1803, and, upon his departure, the Rev. Mr. Baden was again left alone for the space of about two years.

In 1805 the Rev. Charles Rininck, a native of Belgium, who had been compelled to leave Europe on account of the disturbances occasioned by the French Revolution, arrived in Kentucky. He was a man of great activity and zeal, was disheartened at no difficulties, traveled a great deal, and accomplished much good. He labored incessantly, both bodily and

mentally, for twenty years, and died in the year 1824 while on a missionary excursion to the State of Missouri. He erected in Kentucky ten Catholic churches, in the building of which he often worked with his own hands. For many years he had charge of six large congregations, besides a great number of minor stations scattered over the whole State. He delighted to visit the poor, and children and servants were the special objects of his pastoral care and solicitude. He was the founder, in the year 1812, of that highly distinguished and justly celebrated institution of the sisterhood at Loretto. It is situated in what is now Marion County, and has prospered wonderfully from the beginning. It has a great many branch establishments, both in Kentucky and Missouri, all of which have female schools attached to them.

In the spring of 1806 a band of Catholics came to Kentucky as missionaries, all of whom were of the order of St. Dominic, and established themselves at St. Rose's, near Springfield. Among them were the Rev. Edward Fenwick, Thomas Wilson, William Raymond Tuite, and R. Auger. They labored with great zeal and efficiency. A theological seminary and college for young men were connected with their institution. About a mile from St. Rose a flourishing female institution was soon afterward established, called St. Magdalene, conducted by the Sisters of the Third Order of St. Dominic.

It was not until the year 1811 that the first bishop arrived in Kentucky, the Right Reverend Doctor Flaget, who had been consecrated in Baltimore by Bishop Carroll. He was regarded as an excellent and admirable man, loved by everybody who became acquainted with him. It is said of him that he had no enemy. He reared quite a number of benevolent and literary institutions in Kentucky during the period of his long life.

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Among the companions of Bishop Flaget when he took his permanent abode in Kentucky were the Rev. B. M. David and the Rev. G. J. Chabrat. The latter was the first priest ordained by Bishop Flaget in Kentucky. The Rev. Mr. David was consecrated bishop in the newly dedicated Cathedral of Bardstown on the 15th of August, 1819, and died the

12th of July, 1841, in the eighty-first year of his age. He was the founder of the Theological Seminary of Bardstown, and of the order of Sisters of Charity in Kentucky.

Among the most zealous and efficient clergymen of their day were the Rev. William Byrne, who founded St. Mary's College in Marion County, and the Rev. G. A. M. Elder, the founder of St. Joseph's College in Bardstown. The former was an Irishman, and the latter a native Kentuckian. Both of these institutions are still flourishing, and have been of immense advantage to the cause of education in Kentucky. Both these institutions were ordained together, in the Cathedral of Bardstown, on the 18th of September, 1819, by Bishop David. The Rev. Wm. Byrne died of cholera, at St. Mary's College, the 5th of June, 1833, and the Rev. Mr. Elder died at St. Joseph's College, of an affection of the heart, on the 28th of September, 1838. Both died in the institutions which they had respectively reared, and which they left behind as their sepulchral monuments.

Bishop John McGill, the major part of whose ministerial life was spent in the city of Louisville, died at Richmond, Virginia, at the age of sixty-two years, about the 1st of January, 1872. He was born in Philadelphia in 1809. His parents moved to Bardstown when he was a child. He studied law in Bardstown, and practiced his profession several years in New Orleans; but afterward returned to Bardstown and studied theology. He was ordained a priest after the stated term, and appointed pastor of the Cathedral, and was at the same time editor of the Catholic Guardian. He was a forcible writer and logical preacher.

Archbishop Martin John Spalding, lately deceased at Baltimore, a truly great and good man, was also a native of Kentucky, and spent here the larger portion of his ecclesiastical labors. He was born near Calvary, in Marion County, in the year 1811, and at the time of his death (February, 1872) was in the sixty-second year of his age. He has many distinguished relations in Kentucky who survive him. Two of his brothers, the Hon. Richard Spalding, of Lebanon, and the Hon. Ignatius Spalding, of Union County, are members of the present